Arts & Entertainment

Best Villain St. Louis 2013 - Mayor Gary Brown

In the battle to save a golden Labrador named Phineas from euthanasia, no one has come across worse than Gary Brown, the mayor of the southern Missouri town of Salem. The debacle began after Phineas bit (or "mouthed," according the gentler version of the story) a seven-year-old girl, and in a subsequent hearing, Brown determined the dog should be put down for viciousness. Phineas' owners appealed and even got the victim's family to write a letter saying they did not want the dog killed, but to no avail. Since then a worldwide "Save Phineas" campaign has sprung up with more than 169,000 fans on Facebook, and celebrities, such as St. Louis Blues captain David Backes, have applied pressure to spare the dog. Brown has been accused of everything from plotting to have the dog stolen to having Phineas intentionally housed in poor conditions (the Missouri Department of Agriculture investigated and could not substantiate those claims). Hundreds have offered to adopt Phineas, including Backes, but Brown is sticking to city protocol. No matter what the outcome, it'll be tough for Brown to get out of the doghouse after this.